Another city vote likely
A petition drive to force another vote on the size of Iola’s next governing body is an apparent success.
Monday Iolan Ken Rowe turned in a petition signed by 103 citizens challenging a new charter ordinance that would put in place a five-member city commission next April.
The petition will first be examined by Iola City Attorney Chuck Apt to determine if the wording is proper before it is handed over to County Clerk Sherrie Riebel to ensure at least 49 of the signatures came from registered voters.
“We could have gotten a lot more,” Rowe told the Register. “I had seven or eight people helping get signatures, and several people stopped by the office to sign after they read” about the petition drive last week.
Today was the city’s deadline to file the petition in order for the challenge to be a part of the Nov. 2 general election. The referendum will be Iola’s third in 19 months regarding the city’s governance.
Voters in April 2009 voted to disband the city’s existing three-member city commission, then this April favored a five-member city commission over either a seven- or nine-member governing body. The most recent vote was non-binding and was used as a guide by the existing commissioners to set up a charter ordinance establishing Iola’s next commission.
Rowe has argued that the second vote was not necessary because the first referendum triggered an automatic state law to institute an eight-member city council. Others argued that the city, via constitutional home rule authority, had the right to set the size of its governing body.
Commissioners in July approved a charter ordinance setting up a hybrid city commission, which four commissioners representing each of Iola’s four voting wards, and a mayor elected at large. The mayor would be a voting member.
Rowe had until the latter part of September to challenge the new charter ordinance, although he pushed for an earlier deadline to ensure the question would be on the November ballots. Otherwise, a special election would be necessary.
The petition’s language, if approved, will ask Iolans for a yes or no vote. A yes vote means the charter ordinance will be adopted. A no vote would erase the ordinance and set up rules for an eight-member city council.
